DENVER – The Four Seasons hotel downtown is hosting this year’s Jake Jabs Center Business Plan Competition on June 19 at 8am. The presentations are open to the public.
Chosen from a pool of 50 applicants, 6 finalists are set to present their ideas in front of a panel of local entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. The plans range from a propane grill improvement to a geothermal investment and operating firm.
Around $50,000 in cash and in-kind awards will be distributed to winners of the competition. Sponsors include American Furniture Warehouse, Moda Man, Colorado Symphony, and Colorado Rapids. Since the entrant company must be from Colorado, Montana, or Wyoming, much of this funding will remain and prosper in the Denver area.
Winners don’t just receive money. AppIt Ventures, the 2012 first place winner, owes some of its momentum to winning. Rob Carpenter, who co-founded AppIt Ventures in late 2011 with fellow CU Denver student Jeff Macco, said being featured in several media reports following the victory helped increase its client base and put AppIt “on a fast track for growth.”
New this year, the competition is open to the Rocky Mountain West community of schools: each plan must include one person on the management team who is a current graduate student of a Colorado, Montana, or Wyoming state university. The entrant companies must be less than 2 years old and not have received any Angel or Venture capital funding.
Following the presentations, Joel Appel will lead a discussion with Max and Elaine Appel. The Appel Family turned their family recipes for household cleaners into international powerhouse brands such as OxiClean, Orange Glo, and Kaboom. The family plans to discuss the Orange Glo Corporation’s journey from garage to global, and where they are today. The event will be emceed by Channel 4’s Jim Benneman.
To RSVP for the luncheon or find more information about the competition, please visit the Jake Jabs Business Plan Competition website.
The Business School at the University of Colorado Denver, located in the heart of downtown, is a hub of innovation, collaboration and discovery. With full AACSB accreditation it is the largest accredited graduate school of business in the Rocky Mountain region and places it in the top 5 percent of business programs worldwide. The Business School offers outstanding education to more than 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students each year who come from around the world to study in one of its twelve academic disciplines.
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